Francis of Assisi and Francis of Rome

"No Pope in the history of the Church has ever chosen the name Francis. There have been many named Leo, Gregory, Benedict, and Pius, among others. Choosing the name Francis, thinking of Saint Francis of Assisi, would have been a great contradiction for previous popes. This is because popes lived in palaces, held many honorary titles, concentrated all religious power in their hands and, for a long time, also secular power, and possessed territories (Papal States), armies, many treasures, and banks. They united the Imperium and the Sacerdotium in their person. Now, this was everything that Saint Francis did not want for himself or for his followers. All were to be friars (fratres, a corruption of frater, brother, in medieval Latin). They were called minors (the powerless) in contrast to the majors (the nobles, the great feudal lords, and the rich merchants). Saint Francis and these friars chose to live on the ground of life (in plano subsistere), together with the people, the poor, and the rejected of society, such as lepers. If a Pope, coming from the periphery of the world, outside the old European Christendom, to everyone's surprise, chooses the name Francis, it is because he wishes to convey, simply by the name, a message to everyone. The message is: from now on, a new way of exercising the papacy will be attempted, stripped of titles and symbols of power, and emphasis will be placed on a Church inspired by the life and example of Saint Francis of Assisi: in poverty, simplicity, humility, fraternity among all, including nature's beings and "sister and Mother Earth" herself. It is a bold but necessary project, as it better corresponds to the Tradition of Jesus and the evangelical demands, and above all responds to the demands of a globalized world within which the Church must find, humbly and without exclusivity, its place alongside and together with other Churches, religions, and spiritual paths."